New Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed is British public schoolboy with Tory links

The new President of the Maldives attended a British public school and had his winning campaign orchestrated by a Conservative party adviser, it can be revealed.

By Nick Britten, John Bingham and Chris Irvine

5:18PM GMT 30 Oct 2008

Mohamed Nasheed, known locally as Anni, defeated the dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom to become the Islands' first democratically elected president for 30 years.

Mr Nasheed, a former political prisoner, relied heavily on the Conservative party for its expertise in campaigning and policy development.

His election campaign was run by James McGrath, the former aide to the London mayor Boris Johnson who resigned in June following comments he made over Afro-Caribbeans.

David Cameron is even believed to have even telephoned Mr Nasheed, 41, to congratulate him on his victory.

A former Amnesty International "prisoner of conscience", Mr Nasheed was educated for six years in England.

Friends at Dauntsey's School, a public school in Wiltshire, where he attended sixth form, remember him as a keen cricketer who and popular pupil.

Jennifer Cole, 40, said: "He had the most amazing sense of humour, he was very charismatic. He had an opinion on everything, he used to play devil's advocate, I think he won a public speaking prize at school."

She added: "He played rugby and we used to play tennis together. He also loved reading he would just spend hours in bookshops."

He went on to read maritime studies at the former Liverpool Polytechnic.

Having returned to the Maldives, he began writing commentaries for the popular political magazine Sangu and quickly became a beacon for the anti-Government movement.

He was jailed 13 times for showing open dissent to Mr Gayoom's autocratic regime, on one occasion claiming he was so badly beaten that he now walks with a limp.

An old school friend, David Hardingham, runs Friends of Maldives, an NGO aimed at increasing awareness of Human Rights abuses in the Maldives.

He said: "The UK is where he learnt about democracy, freedom of speech and human rights – it provided him with seeds and he took them back to the Maldives. Immediately when he went back he started writing articles critical of the government."

Three years ago, after opposition parties were legalised, Mr Nasheed, head of the Maldivian Democratic Party, successfully lobbied the Conservatives, who secured funding for his Presidential campaign through the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.

Campaigning, though, was not without its problems. Mr McGrath, a 34-year-old Australian, faced a barrage of abuse by Mr Gayoom's team calling him a malicious outsider and a Christian missionary trying to undermine the country's Muslim faith.

Mr Nasheed was smeared by Government representatives who accused him of spreading Christianity and of having no policy-making experience.

Mr Hardingham added: "Gayeem has always tried to trash the opposition calling them activists so basically to have an alliance with the Tories gave the MDP lots of kudos and confidence. The Tories have even carried out workshops in the Maldives. It has all had a really significant and quite a crucial role in the whole thing. This Islamic fascist state is now turning into a liberal democracy through the Conservatives."

Francis Maude, the former shadow Chancellor who gave Mr Nasheed advice on leadership, said: "Opposition parties have only been legal for two to three years, so it's been a very rapid process and they have risen to the challenge fantastically. They've beaten the odds to win and we're delighted for them."

Gary Streeter, MP for Devon South West, also worked on the campaign and has formalised links with the MDP to become sister parties.

He said: "They came to us wanting help to mobilise the opposition and we have quite a lot of input in terms of campaigning, policy and manifesto.

"When we first went over Mr Nasheed was under house arrest and I found him to be intelligent and a man of integrity."

He added that their role was important because it was the first time they had helped implement democracy in an Islamic country. "It is a model we hope to use elsewhere in the world."